Yes, here's my latest wall hanger, a model of the original China Clipper flying boat, the Martin 130, and for me it turned out to be an expensive agent provocateur, all for a question of scale.
It's a very old kit, from Glencoe Models. I bought it in an actual model shop (remember those?) and didn't hesitate, since I didn't think there'd be any other kit of this plane in my target scale of 1:144 any time soon, and it would be a good pair for the Airfix Boeing 314 Clipper which I already had. I could see that it was simple, reflecting its era; look at the pic above, and note the overthick wings and struts. But I was going to improve it a little, with a few extra details, and it was going to hang on the wall and shouldn't be judged too much by a close up examination. You can also see I've made something of a vignette with it. The flying boat is drifting up to a small jetty, some passengers are already waiting to embark, along with two crew members in contemporary white Pan Am uniforms; I browsed a lot of photos - these were famous aircraft, their trans Pacific flights were always in the news, and their wealthy passengers were often celebrities - and the guy in the doorway was directly inspired by one particular picture.
Here's the box. That's a nice portrait, with plenty of detail to help the modeler. No question about it, the kit inside will enable you to create a representation of the Martin 130 flying boat at 1:144 the size of the real thing. It's stated quite clearly. It's a lie. But I took them at their word, figured out its fit on my computer and ordered a suitable acrylic case for it. Note that the larger the case, the more expensive they are, so I was motivated to go for a good fit. Imagine how dischuffed I was, when I got round to this building project, to find that I wouldn't be able to force this model into that case (the end result for that case was its employment for the Kawanishi Mavis model you can see elsewhere on this site - but that was never originally going to be in the set). I measured the main parts ie wings and fuselage, dry fitted together, and when I calculated its true scale - oh no, you're kidding, I thought - I realised it was clearly intended to be 1:130 scale. I had to buy an extra case. I guess I should have expected the issue, this kit being from the era when model manufacturers would often scale their kits to fit a standard box size.
So, the kit is very basic, of only a few parts. I painted the interior black as usual, and applied some elbow grease to the warped fuselage. I did fabricate an elaborate 'box' to fit around the main passenger doorway, so that inappropriate light from other windows wouldn't be visible when I opened it up. I made a new door, because the model's fuselage is far too thick to look right. The new door is in two sections, because the real thing opened that way, the top bit upwards, the bottom half to the side. I'm pleased with my work there. The thickness is scale realistic, and the small window and framework are present. The only extra windows I 'made' were the two in the cockpit roof, they were too prominent to ignore. The type had a few other small windows in various places but I felt they were best left as they were, outline markings in the moulding.
However, I did cut the cockpit transparency in two. As one piece, you were expected to glue it into one fuselage half, and then fit it into the other fuselage half. I wince at the thought of anyone trying to do this, it will surely have ended in tears. Sticking each side of the cockpit windows into each fuselage side worked perfectly.
What else? Lots of rigging, using fishing line, around the tailplane, and between the wing struts. The radio wires (ceramic wire), including a goodly number of stays for the radio mast.
It was a smaller aircraft than the celebrated Boeing Clipper, and it's unfortunate that the Martin 130 at 1:130 looks so much closer in size to my model of the Boeing. But it's right and just that a model of it is there in my collection, because despite only three of them ever being built, it was a truly historic type. It was the real pioneer of transoceanic passenger services and made Pan Am the world's premier airline. No other airline could offer such luxury, even Imperial Airways. True, this wasn't air travel for the masses, but it had to be this way. Most people had to take weeks to get to the other side of the world; but the select few could get across the Pacific in a few days. It's worth pointing out, too, that this achievement depended not just on the aircraft, but on the chain of way stations and rest accommodation Pan Am built across the Pacific, often on remote tiny atolls. Modern planes can fly right across without them now, but those bases would be of great importance in the coming war. Don't forget, that the real revolution wasn't the transportation of a trivial number of passengers, celebrities though they might be; it was the mail, which was where Pan Am and other such airlines really made their money. It's hard to imagine now, but it made a huge impact on the world's communications, being able to send letters around the world at unheard of speeds. The three 130s were all lost in the end. One in mysterious circumstances, believed with some reason to be by Japanese agency, the others while in Navy service.
Near the end of the build I brought out the very nice looking decal sheet, which included the neatly printed orange and black wing markings. Earlier, I'd been chatting to a modeling friend and he asked about the markings, such points as what orange I would use... Oh no, I replied, no need for a complicated painting session, though it's an old kit with warped parts, quite primitive, the decals are good quality. That was on the basis of having used two of the US flags provided, on my Boeing 314 Clipper, long time ago. Well, I suffered a massive slap in the face when I wetted the mid section decal. This would have been a challenge anyway, because the black areas stretched out along the engine nacelles, including a cut out for the intakes on top. Now, the decal just split apart into impossible slivers. Not the black areas, they were fine, just the orange bits. That was that. What you see here was handpainted, with the assistance of a lot of masking tape. Except the numbers. The kit provided numbers for all three of the Martin 130 Clippers.
It was a smaller aircraft than the celebrated Boeing Clipper, and it's unfortunate that the Martin 130 at 1:130 looks so much closer in size to my model of the Boeing. But it's right and just that a model of it is there in my collection, because despite only three of them ever being built, it was a truly historic type. It was the real pioneer of transoceanic passenger services and made Pan Am the world's premier airline. No other airline could offer such luxury, even Imperial Airways. True, this wasn't air travel for the masses, but it had to be this way. Most people had to take weeks to get to the other side of the world; but the select few could get across the Pacific in a few days. It's worth pointing out, too, that this achievement depended not just on the aircraft, but on the chain of way stations and rest accommodation Pan Am built across the Pacific, often on remote tiny atolls. Modern planes can fly right across without them now, but those bases would be of great importance in the coming war. Don't forget, that the real revolution wasn't the transportation of a trivial number of passengers, celebrities though they might be; it was the mail, which was where Pan Am and other such airlines really made their money. It's hard to imagine now, but it made a huge impact on the world's communications, being able to send letters around the world at unheard of speeds. The three 130s were all lost in the end. One in mysterious circumstances, believed with some reason to be by Japanese agency, the others while in Navy service.
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